On the Original Face and Ritual Observance

Text

Some say that the original face has no form and therefore needs no ritual to express it. But what is this 'no form'? Is it a vacant field? Is it a white wall? The sky does not refuse to bear clouds because it is empty. The bell does not refuse to ring because metal has no inherent sound. Dōgen himself said: 'The way of the Buddha is to know the self.' To know the self is not to strip away all expression. It is to let each act be an act of the dharma-body itself. When we chant, the dharma-body chants. When we offer incense, the dharma-body makes offering. To call this contamination is to think that mud makes the lotus root dirty.

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Tettsū Gikai

Lineage: Sōtō

By Tettsū Gikai

• On the Nature of True Practicesaying

Sources

• contentSōtō Zen in Medieval Japan

  William M. Bodiford

  Cf. Bodiford, Sōtō Zen in Medieval Japan, pp. 62–81, on Gikai's integration of esoteric ritual at Eihei-ji

  Gikai's Dharma Hall Discourses (Jōdō-shū): On the Original Face and Ritual Observance